January 2006 Table of Contents

High-rise living is increasingly attractive to young professionals and empty nesters, and residential towers are popping up all over the United States. Developers are designing their projects to appeal to these residents, who prefer buildings that offer edgy, contemporary architecture and unique amenities. Read more

From one perspective, the multifamily industry is huge and decentralized. More than 16 million apartments sprawl across the country, with big players controlling hundreds of thousands of units and tiny firms managing just a building or two. Read more

Remember "must-see TV"? Season after season, NBC made the couch the place to be on Thursday nights, with a lineup that included now-legendary sitcoms such as "Mad About You," "Frasier," "Seinfeld," and "Friends." Skip an episode, particularly of "Seinfeld," and you missed out on pop culture in the making, from the "low talker" to the "Soup Nazi." Read more

When Wood Partners was founded in 1998, we were a firm dedicated to the development of high-quality apartments. We still are–but today the percentage of rental apartments in our development portfolio has dropped from 90 percent to 30 percent, with the other 70 percent focused on for-sale condos. Read more

Chances are you've seen the ads touting architect Michael Graves' collection of household items at Target stores. Well, that's not the only surprising place you'll find this famous architect. Look for his name splashed throughout the marketing campaign for Maxwell Place on the Hudson, a luxury mixed-use community he is designing on the waterfront of Hoboken, N.J. Read more

When it comes to bringing new technology to a company, forget about taking the easy way out. "You have to do your homework," says Greg McDonald, director of telecommunications for Camden Property Trust, an apartment REIT based in Houston. "There are no shortcuts." Read more

The waves of Hurricane Katrina evacuees needing housing hit apartment companies almost as quickly as the storm itself. "We really had no time for preparation," admits Misti Thompson, assistant manager at Champions Green, an Alpharetta, Ga., community managed by Atlanta-based Lane Co. for Butler Properties. "We received a phone call one afternoon, and five families were in their cars on the way." Read more

Once the hub of Los Angeles' Hollywood Subway line, the Subway Terminal Building has sat nearly vacant for almost a decade. But as one of the most popular movie filming locations in Southern California, this historic building has had its fair share of visitors–"Fear Factor" participants stopped by to sample creepy crawlers, Scully and Mulder discovered aliens in the dark depths of the building, and Detective Sipowicz and his fellow NYPD officers chased criminals in the hallways. Read more

At 6 feet, 5 inches tall, Jim Kjolhede certainly looks like a basketball player. But after you talk with him, you realize that what he really reminds you of is a basketball coach. It makes sense: Kjolhede coached collegiate hoops before he joined the multifamily industry, and he still displays the enthusiastic "Go get 'em!" presence of a team leader. Read more

At 17,500 square feet, it wasn't much land to build a 156-unit, high-end multifamily housing project. But the land was at the northeast corner of Figueroa and Olympic in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Anschutz Entertainment Group's Staples Center and smack in the middle of a 27-acre redevelopment project. The Hanover Co., a Houston-based developer, just had to have it. Read more

Todd Heistand, owner of NuStyle Development Corp. in Woodbine, Iowa, had owned 7.6 acres in a blighted area of Omaha, Neb., for six years. He always knew he wanted to do something with it, and when the city decided to build the Qwest Convention Center close to his land, he decided to act. Read more

One of the newest technologies in the apartment business today is also one of the simplest, at least by name. But using Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, to boost your bottom line is still a complex equation when it comes to multifamily management. One thing's for sure: RSS has hit the 'Net running by enabling property owners to notify prospects within hours of the perfect apartment becoming available. Want a garden-style, two-bedroom, one-bath rental on Maiden Lane for $1,500 a month? Enter those search criteria into a Web site such as Apartments.com, and an RSS "feed" will alert you as soon as it hits the database. Read more

When Robert Montagne and his colleagues at Walnut Street Development in Fairfax, Va., first contemplated building Clarendon 1021, a 420-unit condominium building in Arlington, Va., deciding whether a fitness center would be included wasn't up for discussion. "With a building of that size, a fitness center was an absolute necessity," says Montagne, company president. "It was a no-brainer. With all the competition at that level you need those kinds of amenities." Read more

The city of Long Beach, Calif., has its own charming take on royalty: the Gaytonia Apartments. The three-story, 27-unit building, which sits atop a hill on 212 Quincy Ave., closely resembles a Tudor-style castle, complete with pitched, hip roofs, turrets, and conical caps. Read more